Automatic regulator



Feb. 12 1924. 1,483,536

H. E. WARREN AUTOMATIC REGULATOR Filed Feb. 27 1922 2.3 ig. l.

lm/entorl Henry [.Wamren,

"His Attorney.

' system Patented Feb. 12,1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY E. WARREN, OF ASHLAND, MASSACH USETTS, ASSIGNOR TO WARREN CLOCK COMPANY, A CORYQRATION OF MAINE.

LUTOMATIC REGULATOR.

Application filed February 27,1922, Serial No. 539,847.

ondary clocks.

In order that secondary clocks operated from a commercial source may indicate accuracy, it is necessary to insure a constant rate of the indicating element. -Where' the rate of the secondary clocks is directly dependent upon the speed of rotating a'pparatus at the central station, it is evident that a speed control system must be used for t maintaining theaverage speed of the rotating apparatus at an. absolutely uniformvalue. In case synchronous motor secondary clocks are operated from a commercial alternating current system, it IS necessary that the average frequency be maintained at a constant value, so that the secondary clocks connected" on the'system may always indicate accurately, since the speed of the motors is absolutely proportional to the frequency. In many instances it is highly desirable that the normal regulationv of the be automatic so that no manual adjustment of speed needbe made.

' portant since 9 In addition to the need of speed regulation it isalso necessary to take care of temporary interruptions in the service so that the secondary clocks may be brought back into coincidence, with an accurately ad ju'sted time it is impossible to safeguard totally against the temporary interruptions which are for the most part of short duration'. It'is extremely desirable, whether the interruptions be short or long, to arrange matters in such a way that upon the resumtion of the service the secondary clocks may of an increase in the speed of the, rotating ap'paratus'while the secondary clocks are slow, that is, while their indications'are behindthat of a stand- I 1920, Serial piece. This is especially imgovernor 6 and 'a masterard time piece. This increase above normal rate of the secondary clocks should normally.

be efieoted by automatic means. Such'controlling means as I have outlined above is especially useful where the secondary clocks are driven by self-starting synchronous mo-' tors, or by other self-starting mechanisms, such as direct current electromagnets, for then it is absolutely certain that each and all of the secondary clocks will start and sto operating at the same instant.

he system as thus far outlined is broadly claimed in in application filed October 2, 0. 414,161, entitled Control systems and assigned to the same assignee as the present invent-ion. In my copending application Serial'No. 521,589, filed Decemher 5, 1921, entitled Automatic regulation and assigned to the same assignee, as the present invention, claimed the application of such a system as outlined above tothe regulation of prime movers equipped with existing types of speed governors. My present inventlon relates to improvements over the last mentioned application and particularly to the' provision of anti-racing devices whereby the prime mover governor and the average speed regulating means may operate together smoothly and with a high degree ofaccuracy.

The construction and mode of operation of my invention will be understood from the following description taken in connection I have described and with the accompanying drawings, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawlngs, Fig. -1 shows I one arrangement of my improved re ulating system as applied to the control 0 turvbo-alternators; Fig. 2 shows a detail of one of the anti-racin mechanisms; and Fig. 3 shows a simplifie d wiringdiagram for one of the control motors shown in Fi ."1.

Referring now in particular to l ig. 1, 1 indicates a steam. turbine or other prime clude seeon ary clocks. Steam is supplied to the turbine 1 throu h pipe 4 and governor controlled valve 5. be opening of valve. 5 and consequently the s ee of the turboale ternator is automaticay controlled by the combined re lating effect of a speed responsive device illustrated as a centrifu 1 clock regulating driving an alternatingwrrnt 'g'ener-. PP s ystem a which may in? .llO

-device designated in general at 8. The regulating effect of thecentrifugal governor is of course responsive to the instantaneous speed of the turbine and the regulating effect -of the clock device 8 is arranged to beresponsive to accumulated errors in frequency. The centrifugal governor is normally set to maintain the speed of the turbo-alternator at such a value that no appreciable error in frequency will occur, and the clock controlling mechanism is arranged to modify the setting of the governor to correct for accumulated errors in frequency when such errors exist. The regulating devices are provided with suitable anti-racing mechanism which effectively prevents the over-travel of the regulating parts and yet allows them to be quickly responsive to errors in instantaneous or average speeds.

In thepresent illustration I have shown a servo motor 9 for moving the valve operating through piston rod 10 and lever 11. The pilot-valve 12 of the motor 9 is --cont rolled'throughthe piston rod 13 and pivoted lever '14.- by the centrifugal governor in the usual manner. The normal setting of the governor is manually adjustable such asby a,nut 15 adapted when turned to vary the length of the piston rod 13. The upper end of the centrifugal governor 6 is provided with a collar '16 to which the lever arm 14 is attached. The collar is adapted to be moved up and down on the stationary spindle 17 &y the centrifugal action of the governor.. he governor is driven from the steam turbine in any suitable manner and I have diagrammatically illustrated the same as being driven from the shaft 18 of the turbine through suitable gearing. The lower end of the governor is secured to one of these gears which is rotatably but nonslidably mounted on the spindle 17 in an suitable mariner. As thus described, it wi l be evident that the speed of the turbine 1 will be controlled by the governor 6 operatin through the servo motor 9 on the valve 5 1n the usual manner. While I have here described a centrifugal governor operating through a servo motor, I do not wish to be 20 and line 21. The motor 19 drives one portion of an. endless belt 22. The belt is other side of t advanced at another place in the samezfdirection' at an exactly uniform rate by a standard chronometer designated at 23. A loop is formed in the belt'between the places where it is advanced by the synchronous motor 19 and the timin device 23, and in this loop rides a weighte pulley 24. When the frequency of the generator 2 is correct, the belt will be advanced at the same speeds by both the synchronous motor 19 and the "timing device 23, and the pulley 24 will remain in the same vertical position. If the frequency increases above normal, the pulley '24 will be raised and if the'frequency decreases'below normal, the pulley willbe lowered'and the amount of such movement away from a normal position will be a measure of the accumulated efror in uency. The direction in which the belt is driven for accomplishing this result isdesignated by the arrows thereon. When the accumulated error in frequency is zero,-the pulley 24 is, adjusted to have the position illustrated with respect to a pivoted switchkarm 25. One end of this pivoted'arm on the weight 26 of the pulley 24 so astobalmoved up and down by.the movement of the pulley .when accumulated errors in frequency occur. The other end of the arm 25 cooperates with adjustable switch contacts 27 and 28 which control the circuit of a control motor 29 in a manner to correct for accumulated errors in frequency.

A simplified circuit diagram for thee motor'29 is shown in Fig. 3. Themotor may be of the direct current seriestype having two oppositely wound field windings 30 and 31, one side of each field windin being permanentllyl connected to one side 0 the armature. e other terminals of the field windings are connected through lines 32 and 33 to contacts 27 and 28 respectively. The other side of the armature is connected to one side of the storage battery 35 or other source of energy through line 34 and the 1e batteryor'source is connected through line 36 to the insulated end of pivoted lever 25. It will thus be evident that when the circuit just traced is closed between arm 25 and contact 28, the speed control motor will operate in one direction and when the circuit is closed between arm 25 and contact 27 the motor will 0 rate in the opposite direction, and that t e motor will remain stationary when the arm 25 stands at an intermediate position such as illustrated.

The speed control motor is arranged to modify the setting of the governor 6 to correct for accumulated errors in frequency. In the present illustration I have shown the motor 29 arranged to raise and lower the governor 6 with respect to the stationary pivot 37 of the governor controlled lever 14. The spindle rod 17 upon which the variation in the length of the spindle 17.

The exterior surface of the nut 39 constitutes a, pinion with which a rack 40 co-' operates. The rack 40 is moved by the speed. control motor 29 through worm gear 41, shaft 42 and pinion 43. In order that the motor 29 may be made small and in order not to adjust the speed too rapidly this worm gear reduction is preferably made very large, for example, several hundred to one. The pinions 39 and 39' on spindle17 are made of sufficient length to keep in mesh with their cooperating gear members when said pinions are adjusted longitudinally by controlling mechanisms. The direction of rotation of the motor 29 and the arrangement of the right and left hand pinion nut 39 is such that when contact is made between arm 25 and contact 28 due to a small accumulated negative error in frequency, the rack 40 will be moved to the-left and the spindle 17 shortened thus lowering the governor 6, lever 14 and pilot valve piston 13.

This will cause the servo motor 9 to raise its piston 10 and lever arm 11 to open the valve 5. A small positive accumulated error in frequency will reverse the direction of rotation of the speed control motor 29 to cause the opposite movement of the various parts and a corresponding closure of the valve 5.

The valve 5 is rovidedwith ananti-racing device consisting of a dashpot 44 connected through a system of levers between throttle valve 5 and a sliding base 45 upon which the motor 29, worm gear 41 and shaft 42 are mounted. A suitable groove is provided in the supporting frame 38 in which the base 45 may slide. The base 45.is connected to a lever 46 by a link 47. The lower end of the lever 46 is pivoted to the station-,

ary frame'38 and is provided with a centering device consisting of springs 48 positioned between stationary supports on the of thedash-pot 44. The piston of the dashframe 38. These s rings tend to keep the lever 46 and the side 45 'in their central and normal position as illustrated. The upper end of lever 46 carries the outer member pot is connected through lever 49 andlink 50 to an arm 51 secured to the'shaft of the valve 5. The lever '49 is pivoted at its lower end to astationarv support. When the valve 5 is moved towar open position by the raising of piston rod 10 and lever 11, lever 51, link 50. and lever 49 will move the piston of thedash-pot to the right. If this movement is slow "and of small amount, the tendency to overspeed the turbine will not exist and the outer member of the dash-pot will not follow. However, if the movement is quick and p 43. This'will cause the. nut 39 to turn and raise the spindle of the governor and the piston 13 of .the pilot valve 12. The pilot motor 9 is thus checked and an excessive movement of the throttle valve is prevented or corrected. In like manner a too sudden closing of the throttle valve 5 is prevented by a movement-of the various parts in the opposite direction. After an operation of the anti-racing mechanism just described,the centering springs 48 slowly return the lever 46 and the slide 45 to their central positions, thus gradually, the various parts of the mechanism are brought back to their normal positions. In this way, a movement of the valve 5 such as would be liable to cause an undesirable overspeeding or underspeeding of the turbine is prevented and this is true irrespective of whether the movement is caused by the speed responsive governor 6 or by the time control regulator 8. It will be evident to those skilled in the art that various obvious modifications might be made in contacts 27 and 28 are adjustably mounted,

a circuitopening motor 53 for moving the 1 frame 52 in a direction to open the control circuit which is closed by the up Or down movement of the arm 25 and a centerin mo-. tor 54 for more slowly returning the rame 52 in a direction to open the control circuit which is closed by the up or down movement of the arm 25 and to'return frame 52 to its central and normal position as illustrated. The meters 53 and 54 may be similar to the motor 29 and controlled in a similar manner. The motor 53 is shown connected in multiple with motor 29 and iscontrolled by the same contacts 27 and .28. The motor 54 is adapted to be connected across the battery 35 through stationary contacts 55 and 56 which cooperate with a contact 57 on the movable frame 52. These contacts are normally open, but

, the anti-racing device and the manner of illustratedv or some equivalent arrangement around wit when the frame 52 is moved from its central position one of the contacts 55 or 56 is closed and the motor 54 is started in the proper direction to bring the frame- 52 back to its central position and thus open the circuit of motor 54.

convenient way of accomplishi these results is by the use of an epicychc gear train designated in neral by the numeral 58, a bottom plan new of which is shown in Fig. 2. A shaft 59 is threaded through the frame 52 and these two members are so mounted that when the shaft 59 is rotated, the frame 52 to ther with the switch contacts thereon wi moveup or down dependrie's a stud 62 upon which are mounted the planetary gears 63 and 64. These last men- I tioned gears are fastened to ether but rotatabl mounted on stud'62 an have a sli htly di erentdiameter, gear 63 being slig t1 larger than gear 64. Gear 63 meshes with gear 61 and gear 64 meshes with a gear 65 adapted to be driven by the circuit opening motor. 53. This last mentioned gear is mount ed concentric with" shaft 59 and is slightly larger than gear 61. The operation of the epifiayclic gear mechanism is as follows: en motor 53 is'stationary and motor 54 revolves, the gear will revolve on shaft 59. and car the planetary gears 63 and 64 it. Gear being stationary will cause shaft 59 to be driven ve slowly through gears 63 and 61. If, on t e other hand, motor 54 remains stationary and motor 53 is rotated, gears 63 and 64 serve merely as a back gear-arrangement whereby the gear 61 wil run at very nearly the same speed as gear 65 and shaft 59 will thus be driven at a comparatively higher speed.

By such an arrangement no harm will be done if both motors s ould happen tobe energized at the same time. The motors 53 and 54 will be started, stopped and reversed inthe same manner as described in connection with motor 29 and of, course will be connected to rotate in the proper directions to accomplish the purpose for which they are intended. I do not wish to be limited to this articular method of moving the frame 52 use other equivalent arrangements will :occur to those skilled in the art.

' I prefer to .use the flexible arrangement because the flexible connection allows the centrifugal vernor to act without restraint upon the va ve of the-servo motor and does not interfere with the restoration of the valve by the'anti-racing mechanism. 1 The LPN-"11180 clock'controllerto,

located any desired distance away from the engine room. It might has been movedtaway from the be gpssible to dis use with the anti-rac' mec anism on til governor provided r fe was made sufliciently sluggish, and it might be ppssible to dispense with .the anti-racing mec anism of the master clock if its operation was sufiiciently slu 'sh. However, a much closer and more satisfactory regulation of the instantaneous and average speed of the turbine may be had by' providing quick acting controllers provided with anti-racing mechanisms.

With the s stemin operation, switch 20 will becl the seco'nda clocks, one of which, is indicated at 66, wil initially be set with the standard time piece 23 and the standard time iece will of course be accurately ad'uste and frequently com ared with stan ard time obtained from Was ington or other time standardizing centers. Assuming that the system is inoperation and turbine 1 runnin at correct speed, the position of the wejg ted pulley 24 and switch arm 25, being in their central position, indicates that no accumulative error in frequency exists on the alternating current system and that clock 66 is exactly correct as compared I to the master clock 23, Now, let us assume a temporary shut-down of the turbine, say for five minutes. The standard time piece will continue to operate at correct speed,

motor 19 will stop and the wei hted' pulley will descend for five minutes. e left hand end of switch arm 25 will descend with the pulley untillimited by the right hand end coming against contact 28. This closes the circuit of the circuit opening motor 53 in a direction to cause said motor to move frame 52 upward. Now, since in the meantime, the

ulley 24 will have descended'some distance low the left hand end of arm 25 the right hand end willfollow the frame and maintain the circuitv of motor 53 closed until said motor is stopped. I ma provide a stop 67 for thelever 25 in which case the motor 53 will stopas soon as frame 52 and contact 28 itiqn, of switch arm 25 as determined by thz stop 67;

The'upward movement of frame 52 will close the circuit of the centering motor 54 at 56 return said" 1 der the con-1 in the proper direction to slovgy frame to its central position. n

ditions assumed the lever 25 will haYere-J mained against stop 67 and as soon frame has been returned to a position' dh which switch arm 25 makes contact at 28 the mm will again be moved awa by motor 58 The closure of contact 28 a so closes the circuit of the speed-control motor 29 in the proper direction 'to adjust the governor setting to a higher position. Under the conditions of a-Qiqit down such as assumed the governor-K. iwill be adjusted to its highest s also be equipped with the usual hand op The turbine will erated throttle such as shown at -68, um

for starting and stopping purposes and when the turbine is again started by the 25 to close the circuits of motors 29 and 53 at 27. Motor 29 will then gradually readjust the governor to a lower speed setting and the turbine speed will be reduced accordingly. Motor 53 will move contact 27 downward away from lever 25 closing the circuit of motor 54 at 55 which will slowly return the frame 52 back to its central position. If the speed of the synchronous motor 19 is still too high, or if there is still a slight positive accumulated errorin fre-- quency, the circuits of motors 29 and 53 will again be closed at 27 and the governor setting again adjusted for lower speed operation. The function of the anti-racing devices which regulating devices without which they would have to be made so slu gish as to seriously interfere with the desirable close speed control of the turbine.

Although my invention is. particularly advantageous on systems supplying secondary clocks, it is evident that itcould to advantage be applied to reglllate thespeed of prime 'movers whether t system is one supplying secondary clocks or not because the master clock controller 8 may be adjusted to respond to" minute variations in speed such as would not effect the ordinar speed ove'rnor. The same master clock controller 8 may be used to regulate a plurality of prime movers supplying a common system, by providin each of such prime movers with a spec control motor such as shown at 29, all of the speed con-- trol motors being connected in parallel. It is also apparent that the master clock controller may be disconnected entirely such as by opening switches 20 and 69 without interfering with the operation of governor 6 and its anti-racing device.

In case it becomes desirable to suspend the operation of the master clock controller the motor 29 may then beused to adjust the setting of the governor, and thus regulate the speed of the-turbine, as is often' desirable for synchronizing urposes. When so used the motor 29 woul be connected to a set of manually. controlled con-' tacts located for example on the power house switchboard. Such contacts are shown in Fig. -1 at 70 and it will be apparent that manual control may be resorted to within certain limits even though the ave been previously explalned is to prevent an over-travel of the clock controller is also in operative condition.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes I have described the pri ciple of operation of my invention together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof,

but I-desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention may be carried out by other means. a

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of'the United States, is 1. In combination a motor, an automatic governor for said motor adapted to keep the speed thereof at a substantially constant normal value, means for measuring average errors in the speed of said motor, means dependent upon such measurements for adjusting the speed of said motor in a manner to correct for such errors,*and means for preventing an,over regulation oi the speed of said motor.

2. In combination a motor, an automatic speed governor driven thereby, a differential master clock regulator responsive to'average errors in the speed of said motor, a speed controller for said motor controlled by said governor and clock regulator in accordance with errors in instantaneous and average speeds respectively, an anti-racing device for said speed controller and an anti-racing device for the regulator. 1

3. In combination an alternating current generator, a prime mover for driving said generator, an automatic governor for said prime mover adapted to keep the frequency of said generator at a substantially constant normal value, a differential master clock anism connected to measure average errors III in the speed of rotating apparatus to be 7 controlled thereby, a movable frame, a pair of spaced contacts on said frame respectively connected to control the directions of movement of the regulating motor when energized, a switch arm-movable by said difierential mechanism and adapted when so moved away from a normal position due to an average error in the measured speed to energize one or the other of said contacts, a circuit opening motor controlled by from a normal position in a direction to said contacts for moving said frame awayi open a contact when closed by the switch by the operation of amovable switch arm playing between a pair of spaced contacts, characterized by the provision of an anti racing device therefor comprising a movable frame upon which the contacts are mounted, a circuit opening motor controlled by said contacts for moving said frame away from a central positionin a direction to open a contact when closed by the'movable arm, a centering motor, controlled by the movement of said frame away from the central position for more slowly returning said frame, and an epicyclic gear train through which said motors operate.

6. In combination a motor, an automatic governor for said motor adapted to keep the speed thereof at a substantially constant normal value, means for detecting errors in the speed'of said motor smaller'than those corrected by-the normal operation of said 1,4ss,sae

generator, a valve for regulating the supply v of motive fluid to said prime mover, a speed responsive governor driven by said prime mover for controlling said valve, means for adjusting the speed setting of said governor, a speed control motor for moving said speed ad usting means, a differential master clock regulator connected to compare the time of said secondary clock with a standard time piece and to energize said speed control motor so that the latter will adjust the speed setting of said governor in a direction to correct for any error in said secondary clock, and means for energizing said speed con-;

trol motor independently of said master clock re ulator.

In wi ness whereof, I have hereunto setmy hand this 18th da ofvFebru arv, 1922. HEN Y E. WARREN. 

